James Scott Bell: Complete Zombie-at-Law Series

BooksZombiesComedy
Written By Chris Well

In L.A., practicing law can be hell. Especially if you’re dead.

Lawyer-turned-suspense-writer James Scott Bell came up with a humorous horror angle that included a zombie lawyer taking on supernatural cases. Originally published under a different pen name, the Zombie-at-Law Series later was re-released under Bell’s own name.

Wait—zombie legal thrillers? You read that right. It’s part John Grisham, part Raymond Chandler—except the lawyer is dead. Mallory Caine, Zombie at Law, defends the creatures no other lawyer will touch…and longs to reclaim her real life…

Bell told Enclave how he came up with the idea for these books.

“When Pride and Prejudice and Zombies came out, zombies got ‘hot,’” he said. “A  year or so later I was sitting around wondering what I could do with zombies that was different. Since I had written several legal thrillers, I thought why not combine those genres? And have the zombie be the hero for a change? She doesn’t know why she’s a zombie, doesn’t want to be, but she’s also a very good lawyer. She defends the true outsiders, like vampires accused of murder and werewolves fighting for custody of their kids. So I invented the zombie legal thriller genre. That should be in my posthumous biography.”

In an interview with Jungle Red Riders, Bell explained:

“In L.A., For a zombie to be a good lawyer, she would have to have to have a good law school education and experience in the courtroom. Mallory Caine has both. Unfortunately, she was murdered and brought back to life by someone who wants to control her, and is now one of the walking dead. But not the slobbering kind. Not the cliché monster we see in countless movies and books and TV shows. She’s still got a will and she’s still got her mind and she will not allow anyone to control her. Yes, she’s got to eat human flesh and brains, but no one’s perfect. Especially an L.A. lawyer.”

Bell told Kristen Lamb about his “world rules” for this series and they differ from standard zombie rules. (Like, what is the explanation for the zombies retaining their mental faculties?)

“One nice thing about paranormal ‘rules’ is that you can make them up as long as you’re consistent. I mean, zombies were not flesh eaters until George Romero. Before that they were simply mindless and controlled. I combined all of that, but with the proviso that a zombie with a strong enough will can resist being controlled. Mallory is strong-willed, for sure. She is fierce and intelligent and witty. But there’s something else going on, too. A greater scheme of things she is only slightly aware of.”

Below, find info about all the books in the series.

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Meet Mallory Caine. Attorney at law. Zombie at large. She’s not like those “Living Dead” losers you see in the movies. She doesn’t slobber, drool, or lurch. She’s smart, stylish, and sexy. Sure, she’s a zombie and a lawyer but, hey, a girl’s got to eat. When Mallory’s not in the courtroom, going head to head with her ex-boyfriend, prosecutor Aaron Argula, she’s in the seedy streets of Hollywood, hunting brain after brain. That is, until some psycho starts hunting zombie after zombie...

The undead are decapitated, a letter “Z” carved in their flesh. Mallory doesn’t want to lose her head, but she’s worried. Like many lawyers in L.A., she doesn’t have a soul, a side effect of being a zombie, not a defense attorney. If Mallory dies before she gets her soul back, she goes straight to hell. No appeals. Objection overruled. If the killer isn’t stopped, it’s case closed for zombies everywhere.

But Mallory is an undying champion of justice, and she won’t go down without a bite...

The book that invented the zombie legal thriller is back. Originally published under the pen name K. Bennett, the Mallory Caine, Zombie-at-Law books are the work of James Scott Bell, winner of the International Thriller Writers Award and a former trial lawyer living (really and truly) in Los Angeles.

Review:

“Bell delivers a fast-paced and action-packed story featuring a remarkable zombie heroine. Mallory is akin to urban fantasy heroines in that she has a dark sense of humor and is full of irony, but her quiet and reflective moments have a lot of power to them; her melancholy realization that she won’t ever have the life she dreamed of is very poignant, for one.” (SFRevu)

Buy Pay Me In Flesh (Mallory Caine, Zombie-At-Law Thriller #1) from Amazon

The Year of Eating Dangerously (Mallory Caine, Zombie-At-Law Thriller #2)

The dead shall rise … and approach the bench!

As a lawyer, Mallory Caine considers it her duty to defend the innocent. As a flesh-eating zombie, she knows how to take a bit out of crime. So when a scared ten-year-old boy asks for her help—claiming that his mother wants to eat him—Mallory rises to the occasion. Unfortunately, the occasion is a Satanic ritual, the mom is a monster, and the boy is a sacrifice.

Before you can say, “The devil made me do it,” Mallory is caught dead center between a family of freaks, fire-breathing demons, and the final battle of good versus evil. If she doesn’t have enough on her plate, the brain-chomping lawyer has to defend her zombie-hunting father in court. And, oh yeah: her flesh-eating secret is about to be exposed by a sexy LAPD detective who’s good enough to eat. What’s a zombie girl to do?

Review:

“I’m more convinced than ever that this whole series is an attempted parody of the urban fantasy genre. The plots of these books are full of ripped-off elements of UF novels, but in each case, it’s a bait-and-switch in which each purloined element is twisted and magnified to go for the biggest laughs. If you pick up this series looking for UF, you’re out of luck; there is absolutely no dark, gritty urban realism—not one bit. If you’re looking for an over-the-top spoof of UF with lots of laughs (alternating with graphic guts scenes), you may like the series.” (Fang-tastic Fiction)

Buy The Year of Eating Dangerously (Mallory Caine, Zombie-At-Law Thriller #2) from Amazon

What’s worse than killing a cop? Eating him afterwards. Which is exactly what happened to a Los Angeles County sheriff in the office of one noted Los Angeles lawyer. Now Mallory Caine, zombie at law, faces the toughest trial of her life – her own – since she’s the prime suspect.

Ironically, Mallory’s been suppressing her undead desires in a 12-step zombie recovery group. It’s her human desires that scare her. He’s one hot werewolf named Steve Ravener, and he’s Mallory’s latest client. His ex-wife wants to keep him from seeing his kids. He needs a lawyer whose bite is worse than his bark.

Needless to say, family law has never been this hairy. And with a murder charge hanging over her head, a snake goddess charming her mother, and all kinds of hell-spawn taking over L.A., Mallory's plate is full. And she’s dying to take a bite…

Review:

“If you can handle bizarre characters and a totally off-the-wall plot, this novel may be a nice change of pace from your usual literary fare. As the title indicates, the heroine of the odd series is a drop-dead gorgeous Los Angeles attorney who also just happens to be a zombie.” (BookLoons)

Buy I Ate The Sheriff (Mallory Caine, Zombie-At-Law Thriller #3) from Amazon

About the Author

James Scott Bell is a winner of the International Thriller Writers Award and the author of the #1 bestseller for writers, Plot & Structure (Writer’s Digest Books). His thrillers include the Mike Romeo thriller series; the Ty Buchanan legal thriller series); and the vigilante nun action series Force of Habit.

Jim has taught writing at Pepperdine University and at numerous writers conferences in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand. He served as the fiction columnist for Writer’s Digest magazine and has written several popular writing books, including…

A former trial lawyer, Jim now writes and speaks full time. He appeared as an expert commentator on Good Morning America, CBS radio, and in Newsweek magazine during the O. J. Simpson murder trial. His book on search and seizure law is the leading authority in its field, used extensively by lawyers and judges throughout California every day.

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Chris Well

Chris Well been a writer pretty much his entire life. (Well, since his childhood.) Over the years, he has worked in newspapers, magazines, radio, and books. He now is the chief of the website Monster Complex, celebrating monster stories in lit and pop culture. He also writes horror comedy fiction that embraces Universal Monsters, 1960s sitcoms, 1980s action movies, and the X-Files.

https://chriswell.substack.com/
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